Before we get too deeply into a bout of schadenfreude about the travails of the euro, and even praising Gordon Brown for keeping the UK out (Euro crisis, 13 February), consider some of the downsides. What was for many years an overvalued pound destroyed vast tracts of our otherwise world-class manufacturing industry, doing nothing for the balance of trade or employment, particularly in the regions.

Investment in new, state-of-the-art manufacturing capacity all too often went elsewhere, influenced by the attractions of a new vast single currency zone, rather than one outside it with an increasingly overvalued currency and a government all often beholden to financial, as opposed to real, engineering.

On the invisibles side of the balance of payments, tourism, which had long been a positive contributor, was to move solidly into deficit, where it stays to this day. Capital inflows, fuelled by the open door policy of the UK, all too often fuelled the imbalance of the economy, facilitating highly leveraged speculative takeovers, burdening companies with massive debts, rather than creating new businesses and employment.

Yes, there have been irresponsible members of the eurozone, which are now at the mercy of the markets. But from this side of the fence, with industry severely weakened, a collapse in demand, and a sea of government, corporate and personal debt, the fact that we have the pound back at last at a realistic value is of little avail. One wonders what might have been had not Gordon Brown slammed the euro door so firmly all those years ago.